Innovators Summit 2024 Recap 💥
Takeaways and reflections
This year’s Innovators Summit was something truly special. For those of you who were able to join us, we thank you for taking your precious time and sharing it with our growing community. I also want to thank the NAW and Applico team members for their hard work over many, many months to make the event a smashing success.
The caliber of people and sophistication of the conversations was off the charts. And, the number of 1:1 meetings conducted set a record at over 140!
Convergence of Customer and B2B Distributor Tech
There was a lot of discussion about the convergence between technology used by the customer of B2B distribution and technology for the B2B distributor – and now, a growing amount of tech companies that are doing both! Some tech companies started with the customer, and others started with the distributor.
This was our first year where we featured a handful of customer technology companies on Day 1 of the Innovators Summit. And, the theme continued throughout the event, including into Day 3 during our keynote conversation with the CEO of The Home Depot, Ted Decker.
AI
Our AI companies had a great show and we continue to see strong interest and curiosity from B2B distributors for solutions in this area. I heard from one of the attendees, “I’ve looked at all the AI solutions and go to all these innovation conferences, and the Innovators Summit truly had some unique AI solutions that actually don’t seem to be full of hot air.”
There are even more AI solutions that we see gaining traction in adjacent verticals – yet no one has launched the AI equivalent designed for the specific needs of the B2B distributor. Hopefully, at next year’s event, we’ll have even more solutions purpose-built for B2B distribution.
Multiple of our keynote speakers talked about how quickly AI is advancing – and gave tangible examples of how they are using AI inside their own companies. They used weeks and months as the unit of measurement for progress, showing how quickly the field continues to evolve.
Data & Connectivity
Data is the new oil.
Boy, was that message heard loud and clear. Distributors are investing a lot of money in their data. And, so are the tech companies. Some tech companies are creating their own data models that can benefit their customers. And, some tech companies are selling solutions to distributors to help enrich their data – and help distributors better monetize their data.
If data is the new oil, then distributors need a lot of oil pipelines.
Data connectivity in our industry is not to be taken for granted. Even if distributors have the data, their ability to use that data can be hamstrung due to a lack of connectivity. There were multiple examples of B2B distributors that have built their own infrastructure to solve this problem. And, also multiple tech companies helping distributors with data connectivity solutions.
Next Year: Change Management
Next year, we’re thinking of spending some more time on change management. (Don’t roll your eyes at me!) In true Innovators Summit fashion, we wouldn’t do a change management topic in a boring, monotonous way. Instead, we’d want to make this much more pragmatic, tangible, and actionable. Do you have ideas on how we could do that? Please reach out. If you have examples of success at your B2B distribution company when it comes to technology change management – I’d love to hear from you.